it. Or perhaps I was just too busy.
The Babys Head, 1979
NEVISON'S REMEMBERS
Ron Nevison
RN:I did two albums with The Babys and had
our friend, Allan Macmillan, do the orchestra-
tion. On the album Head first I brought in a
song called "Isn't It Time." Singer John Waite
didn't want to do it. None of the band really
wanted to do it, but I had a mandate from the
record company to make a hit for them and do
it by whatever means possible. So John starts
singing this song, but when he got to the cho-
rus, it didn't sound right. So I decided to have
my background singers come in and sing the
chorus and have John answer it. I kept my fin-
ger crossed, and the results were great.
The Who Quadrophenia, 1973
T
he storied producer and engineer Ron
Nevison began his career in the 1970s as
an engineer on classic albums including
The Who's Quadrophenia and Bad Company's
self-titled debut. He eventually became a full-
time producer, working with artists like Led
Zeppelin, Ozzy Osbourne, UFO, Thin Lizzy,
and Kiss. He is also currently in the process of
writing his autobiography, and IE's Todd
Houston caught-up with the legendary studio
boffin for some interesting impressions from
his long career.
KISS Crazy Nights 1987
RN: Well, people said KISS was trying to com-
pete with Bon Jovi at the time, I guess it's kind
of true. Bon Jovi at the time had come out with
"Livin' On A Prayer," and we're in their early
peak. Paul Stanley of KISS was in New York
writing with Desmond Child and all the writ-
ers Bon Jovi was working with. At the begin-
ning of the Crazy Nights sessions, Paul had
shown me eight or ten great quality songs that
he thought we could use. Gene just kind of
sent me some songs that he had laying
around, maybe twenty-five or so, if I remem-
ber correctly. He basically only contributed a
couple of the songs that made it to the record.
We did most everything at Rumbo Records
near Los Angeles. To tell you the truth, I'm a
little disappointed that the Crazy Nights album
didn't have a big hit single. Ten years before
the Crazy Nights sessions, I had an interview
with Paul Stanley just before KISS did their
solo albums. I met Paul at Casablanca Records,
but for whatever reason, I didn't end up work-
ing with them. I don't know if they didn't want
me to do it in the end, or if I didn't want to do
RN: Quadrophenia was a concept born out of
the Lighthouse phase of Pete Townsand's writ-
ing. MCA was coming out with this
Quadraphonic sound in the '70s, and they
were building a studio in a section of London
that prepared for the "quad" sound. Now I
only got the job as the recording engineer on
this because I had built a studio for Ronnie
Lane (Faces), and he and Townshend were
great friends. So when the Who was ready to
do the album and their control room wasn't
ready. Ronnie gets a call, and they say 'get
your mobile studio down here because we
want to start recording basic tracks.' Since I
was the guy who designed and built the stu-
dio, they said okay let him do it. The equip-
ment we had in the mobile unit came from
America; this was the equipment that suppos-
edly had replicated the Quadraphonic sound.
It was lousy. In other words, there was no front
to back separation at all. It was like one big
mono mix. Pete came in and said 'I'm not
going to do a Quadraphonic album that does-
n't even sound as good as a regular stereo mix.
Keep in mind that I had already done a lot of
quad work. I had recorded the drums in four
places and panned them, etc. Lots of work. A
lot of people still say that album was recorded
in Quad and it was not, so that debunks that
theory.
UFO Lights Out, 1977; Strangers in the
Night, 1979
RN: I went in to do my first work with UFO on
the Lights Out album. Going back and listen-
ing to their previous stuff produced by Leo
Lyons, it really didn't have it you know? I
decided to take them to a different level and
orchestrate them. I had done previous work
with a guy called Allan Macmillan who was
just fantastic at adding orchestration to hard
rock music. I remember Phil Mogg coming up
to me and saying that he would like to do a
[Love] cover song called "Alone Again Or." I
thought it was a great idea and it ended up
turning out great as well. Terry Ellis (co-
founder of Chrysalis Records) actually wanted
to release the song "Try Me" as a single, and
asked me if I could do a radio edit! I remember
going in and playing with it for a day and
thinking 'man, there is no way.' Not to men-
tion in those days you had to use a razor blade
to edit the tape as there was no Pro Tools to cut
and paste a track. Lights Out was probably my
favorite UFO album to work on. I remember
recording in London and flying out to L.A. to
master it. When it was all said and done, we
then brought it to Chrysalis and played it for
them. We got a standing ovation from the
room!
Strangers in the Night was recorded at the
Record Plant mobile studio. If I remember cor-
rectly, I believe it was recorded in four or five
different locations. Youngstown, Columbus,
continued on page 45
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